Goodman Mayor Greg Richmond was sworn in Tuesday night after city attorney Duane Cooper reviewed the county's certified election results.
Goodman city clerk Karla McNorton read the results at the Goodman City Council meeting, then handed them to Cooper to look over. The county's tallies showed that Richmond received 49 votes and write-in candidate J.R. Fisher had 47 votes, with one other write-in vote that said "Fisher."
Fisher asked Cooper if he would review the results he brought with him. Fisher said the results he had showed 48 votes with another write-in vote of "Fisher."
Cooper said the results read by McNorton were verified votes sent by the county to the city, all overseen and signed by County Clerk Kim Bell. Cooper told Fisher that the election was overseen by the county clerk's office and all the votes certified by it. Any challenge to the vote would have to be made to the county, not the city, Cooper said.
He told McNorton she could proceed with the swearing-in ceremony.
Richmond was sworn in as mayor, Ed Tuomala and Ron Johnson as aldermen and Meghan Sexson as tax collector. In a previous interview, Bell said her office holds the election, certifies the election results and then sends the certification letter to each party. If Fisher decides to contest the results, he will have to petition the circuit court, she said.
In other business on Tuesday night, the council voted to reappoint Cooper as city attorney, Curt Drake as police chief and McNorton as city clerk.
Alderman Calvin Wilson was appointed as acting president. Alderman Keith Kohley was appointed recreation board commissioner, Tuomala as street commissioner, Johnson as water/sewer commissioner and Wilson as maintenance commissioner.
Fisher's mayoral platform mainly consisted of street disarray and finding funding through grants to repair streets. During the discussion, one man in attendance asked about what the city is doing to fix the streets. Richmond said city officials have started fixing potholes and will "patch them up and fix what we can."
An overlay for 1,000 feet of street completed a few years ago cost approximately $60,000. If the city were to enter into a 70/30 agreement, the city would have to come up with 30% for a $2 million project. The city simply doesn't have that kind of funding, Richmond said.
Though grants have been mentioned as a possibility to fund street repair, Richmond said city officials have not yet discovered any available grants.
McNorton said she spoke with a USDA official that oversees the city's water bonds. Unless the city launches a major project, no grants can be tapped into, McNorton said.
Richmond said the city will continue to look into the possibility of finding grants.
General News on 04/18/2019